Contact: Bob McDermott, 808-371-4605
HONOLULU, June 12, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- Hawaii's Department of Education has pulled its controversial sex education curriculum entitled 'Pono Choices' from public schools. Some critics had labeled it an attempt at gay indoctrination directed at eleven-year-olds.
When it comes to writing the game plan for resisting unwanted political incursions into schools; Ohana Policy Group President and Hawaii State Representative Bob McDermott has developed a winning formula.
"We don't get into debates about morality or religious conviction; we go after medical inaccuracy and misrepresentation of facts," said McDermott.
McDermott said that the involvement of parents of school-age children drove the DOE to make changes and retreat from what he has labeled "social engineering."
"This is a return of parental empowerment," said McDermott. "State government should have never been competing for control of children's moral development, or their version of it."
In addition to what McDermott calls promoting homosexual lifestyles, he also listed specific inaccuracies and omissions that he wanted the DOE's review committee to specifically address. In their recent report they retreated from several assertions present in the Pono Choices curriculum.
- The anus will no longer be defined as a genital. Although it took them almost 8 months, with some committee members arguing against, they have stated that according to all medical definitions they studied there was no support for such an obvious misrepresentation.
"Finally, biology has trumped social philosophy," said McDermott.
- They acknowledged elevated risk of disease from anal sex.
"You can't deliberately replace actual disease statistics, and real facts about safe sex with political correctness," added McDermott. "Ironically, in their desire to 'normalize' homosexual lifestyles, they put those very students at risk by withholding these critical facts."
- Making the program a parental opt-in will increase transparency of materials and processes surrounding sensitive curriculum. The DOE acknowledged that the parental disclosure process was flawed and incomplete, and stacked deck against informed decisions by parents.
"The acknowledgement that these programs were not fully disclosed, and should have been opt-in all along is perhaps the biggest win for our families," said McDermott.
About the Ohana Policy Group
The Oahu Policy Group is an independent 501c non-profit organization that funds the research and documentation of questionable government policies. Hawaii serves as an early warning sentinel for progressive assaults on our constitutional rights, infringement of our religious liberties and politicization of our public schools. Ohana Policy Group Website.
